George Clooney may blame himself for the demise of the Batman movie franchise, but the truth is the rot set in a long time before ER-boy got his buttocks into the moulded rubber suit. The problem began when someone in Hollywoodland fell under the assumption that vacant pretty boy Vai Kilmer was capable of producing the tortured emotional range that characterised the Keaton-era crimefighter. No one does pent-up violent mental instability as well as Keaton and Kilmer manages the demanding role about as well as a boiled potato on a damp piece of string. So, with one fell Schumacher-led coup (that’s Joel, not Michael), a character rich in eminently challenging twisted psychosis is rendered as shallow as the most banal of Schwarzenegger action 'heroes’.

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That sage of our times, Steve Hill, made a very insightful point in last month’s review of the otherwise-forgettable Beach Life - about most forms of contemporary malaise being acceptable to today’s game producers, with the exception of drug references. It goes a bit deeper than just drugs though. Other forms of storytelling media are free to explore the darkest recesses of modern society, taking chances with convention and tapping a rich vein of commercial and critical success as they go. Which storyline do you remember and value more, Batman or Batman Forever?

There is simply no reason why modern games cannot treat their subject matters with as much depth and maturity as the rest of the media and not still reap the rewards. Instead we get publishers afraid to take chances and we end up with games like Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

Think Once, Think Twice

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Hitman 2 as a game, save for the fact that it’s as soulless a sequel as any number of summer blockbuster movies with numbers instead of titles. I still remember the thrill of playing the first Hitman, the breathless nerve with which developers IO Interactive threw traditional morals to the wind and forced you to explore an extrapolated, fanciful, but nevertheless gritty and realistic portrayal of life in an assassin’s shoes. OK, sci-fi elements abound, what with cloning, genetic engineering and whatnot, but it still remains the only game to date to make me question my motive for killing a hapless security guard, to make me pause and feel uneasy about my violent actions. A good thing.

There was a genuine sense of character development in the original story - something sorely lacking in this sequel. It doesn’t seem that way at first. You begin, as I’m sure you’ve read in the many previews published over the last few months, having turned your back on your past life, tending gardens in a Sicilian monastery, searching for repentance. We’re shown a shadowy pair reviewing your past exploits and trying to track you down, efforts that lead to your spiritual protector, Father Vittorio, being taken hostage. This is the trigger for you to return to your violent ways, attempting to secure his freedom. Indeed, the final sequence of the game does point towards a strong story of 47’s (that's you) inner search for self, for his true meaning, avoiding a conclusion filled with the expected cliche.

The problem is with just about everything in between these promising bookends. It should have been a potentially engrossing story, a psychological battle of wits as your new-found morals are probed and tested by this mysterious pair for their own ends, and as the character of 47 realises his true place in the world. This tale is unfortunately replaced by the most banal of modern techno-stolen nuclear warheads and government agencies trying to do right by the world.

Literary Review

Hitman 2 is almost devoid of the first game’s sense of real-world assassination motifs. Instead we have the sort of levels that could appear in any game from Project IGI to Rainbow Six. This is best illustrated by the game's adherence to openness, allowing you to complete most levels in any number of ways, including an all guns blazing shoot-out. It's hard to pull off (and there are bonus rewards to be had for being stealthy), but just the fact that you can complete any level by mowing down everything in your way is antipathetic to the very nature of 47's being.Again, it's a deceptive game in that the first three levels (starting with the one most of you will by now have played via the unofficially released Internet demo) don’t indicate this is the case at all. They suggest the glories of the first game have been kept intact, dubious morals and all. After that it rapidly goes downhill into the stereotyped dismantling of rogue terrorist groups, under the auspices of your so-called 'Agency' controller, Diana. Conceptually it's practically a carbon copy of Project IGI's relationship between David Jones and Anya, right down to the whole nuclear weapon hunt scenario. 47 has become little more than another Bond clone.

What’s most annoying about it all is that there is so obviously an exceptionally talented team of creative individuals at IO Interactive and this overall restriction of plot dynamics needn’t have been the case. The cut-scenes and dialogue throughout the game are of exceptional quality and not just from a technical standpoint. The opening and closing FMVs in particular contain some genuinely stunning writing regarding 47's relationship with his mentor priest. It’s maddening that this genius creativity wasn't allowed to guide the project design as a whole.

Bald In Japan

They would certainly have had the practical backup to support it. This revamped and retuned Hitman engine is nothing short of a marvel. Gone are all the stifling problems that affected the first game, replaced with breathtaking visuals, refined controls and perhaps the most authentic levels of Al seen in any game to date. That’s authentic as in the NPCs behave in realistic - ie flawed - ways, levels which vary from one person to another. The disguises are no longer absolute, with your barcoded, hairless head needing to be covered to ensure total anonymity.

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An example would be one of the Japanese levels. You might kill a Yakuza guard (another cliche: all Japanese villains have to be either Yakuza or ninjas) and steal his pants and T-shirt, but the fact you don't a) look remotely Japanese or b) have a body covered in tattoos will be a dead giveaway. Run around a fire-alarmed office building in a full fireman’s uniform, complete with gas mask though, and no one will give you a second glance. Should said fireman be observed picking locks and peering through keyholes mind you, suspicions will be raised. A clever little touch, and again it's indicative of how much thought and talent 10 Interactive can be capable of if they let themselves try.

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As I said near the beginning, there is nothing technically wrong with Hitman 2. It’s as solid a game as you’re likely to see for many a month. It’s just ironic that as the titular character’s signs of exploring the nature of his own soul are stifled, so the game stifles its own soul. The indication is that there will be a third in the series. If so, then I implore both 10 Interactive and Eidos to look towards the Godfather rather than the Batman model for how to approach a sequel. Take a risk. Treat us like adults.